Olive's Ocean

Title: Olive's Ocean
Author: Kevin Henkes
Publisher: Harper Trophy
Year of Publication: 2001
Reader's Rating: 2 - It was okay.

Excerpt: "Olive Barstow was dead. She'd been hit by a car on Monroe Street while riding her bicycle weeks ago. That was about all Martha knew."

In a Nutshell: Martha Boyle, twelve years old, receives a small envelope one morning from a lady who claimed to be Olive Barstow's mother. Inside she finds a page from Olive's journal and is shocked to find her name on it. She and Olive had never been friends and had never even spoken with each other, but they went to the same school and were in the same class. Now she can't stop thinking about her. They had such eerie similarities with each other. She hopes to forget about her when she goes on a trip to see her grandmother, but even there she was reminded of Olive. She didn't know that this trip would change her.

The Good Stuff: It was written well.

The Not-So-Good Stuff: It's a little weird how this book was in the children's section. It had some not-for-children words like "a*shole" and "sh*tty" and a small kissing scene. How inappropriate! The story was a little (a little!) shallow to me as well. Also, I didn't like the way Martha and her brother treated their parents and each other.

Reader's Say: I don't mean to be rude here but I didn't really like this book. It was a little weird and a tiny bit shallow. Maybe that's just me, but I don't recommend this book at all.

The Mysterious Benedict Society

Title: The Mysterious Benedict Society
Author: Trenton Lee Stewart
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Year of Publication: 2007
Reader's Rating: 4 - I really liked it.

Excerpt: “You must remember, family is often born of blood, but it doesn't depend on blood. Nor is it exclusive of friendship. Family members can be your best friends, you know. And best friends, whether or not they are related to you, can be your family.”

In a Nutshell: A special ad appears in the paper, looking for gifted children. This ad unites four very different yet very special children, the final four chosen to take on a secret and dangerous mission that only the most intelligent and resourceful children could complete. These four--Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance--must take on challenges that not even adults could solve, whether physical, mental, or even emotional. Will they reach success after all?

The Good Stuff: I loved how this book was very thought-provoking (it gave me a little head knowledge on Morse code too). I also loved the immense vocabulary it contained! This book is for kids, not even teens, yet it had words that I didn't know the meaning of. The characters were also good.

The Not-So-Good Stuff: The parts about the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened and the mind-controlling definitely creeped me out.

Reader's Say: I loved reading this book, and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel. I also liked how the puzzles were mind-bending yet possible to answer by kids and teens. I especially liked the one at the end, to find out Mr. Benedict's first name, which was directed to the readers. The illustrations were also very good! I loved the illustrator's style; the fonts were so perfect!

The City of Ember

Title: The City of Ember
Author: Jeanne DuPrau
Publisher: Yearling (Random House Books)
Year of Publication: 2003
Reader's Rating: 3.5 - I liked it.

Excerpt: “There is so much darkness in Ember, Lina. It's not just outside, it's inside us, too. Everyone has some darkness inside. It's like a hungry creature. It wants and wants and wants with a terrible power. And the more you give it, the bigger and hungrier it gets"

In a Nutshell: Ember is an underground city, created many years before by the Builders as a shelter to preserve the human race. Enveloped in darkness, its only light comes from bright electric lamps that hang overhead. Ember's inhabitants know nothing of the world above them and are perfectly content with how things run at Ember. Their small city, however, wasn't made to last forever. The once full storage houses of food and supplies are now running low.The lights are starting to flicker, causing blackouts wherein the people wonder whether the lights have breathed their last. Not one of them knows anything about what's beyond the darkness, but escape seems like the only option. Some of the citizens of Ember, though, are skeptical. Where would they go? Is there another world they could escape to? What is beyond the darkness?

The Good Stuff: The main characters of the story, Lina and Doon, are quite nice. DuPrau finds a way to make the friends heroes without them having to develop feelings for each other (a typical storyline among books and movies nowadays). Their relationship extends no more than best-friendship. I also liked how Lina was caring to her grandmother and sister, a trait that isn't as shown in today's books and movies.

The Not-so-Good Stuff: The only thing I didn't like about the book was the lack of vocabulary. It contained ordinary words, which isn't really a bad thing, but I particularly love books that have a wide vocabulary.

Reader's Say: The City of Ember was a fun and exciting read. Lina and Doon's lack of knowledge for common objects such as candles and boats amused me. I recommend reading this book along with the rest of the titles in the Books of Ember series. I also suggest watching the movie because it stays fairly close to the book.

I'm back!

Hey there, bookworms and movie bugs! My apologies for the lack of new posts. I sort of forgot the email and password to this blog. Too many social networking sites to remember, eh? Thankfully, I found the piece of paper where I wrote it down, and I have now returned. Hopefully, I will be able to write more posts and stick to writing in this blog more often. Thank you for waiting patiently. :)

Love,
Hannah
Fellow bookworm and movie bug